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Showing posts from February, 2024

Health Issues with Chickens

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 How to Treat Chickens for Pasty Butt a Foot Infection and Mites How to treat chickens      As with all animals, chickens can have health problems. Our chickens have had both normal, and bizarre health problems. Our first problem was pasty butt, which I talked about in another blog post, but, why not talk about it again? Our second problem was a weird foot infection. Then our chicken’s latest health issue was feather mites.      Pasty butt is actually dried feces that is blocking the chicken’s vent. This normally happens with chicks, but it can happen to adult chickens, too. This problem has the easiest, most instantaneous cure, the cure is a simple wet rag. Take the wet rag and dab at and gently rub the chick’s vent where the dried feces is, this will soften the dried feces and eventually remove it. When one of our chicks got it, we caught it, either the day after it happened or the same day, because she wasn’t in any sort of discomfort. It ...
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Sunday Brunch

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                               Sunday Brunch   It's Been Said that Breakfast is the Most Important Meal of the Day.     For many years my family has had the tradition of having an elegant brunch every Sunday. Why Sunday? Sunday is a rest day, Genesis 2:2-3 says, “ By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.” Because we use Sunday as a rest day, we, therefore, don't have much going on, so we have time to make and eat a big breakfast.      I normally am one who makes brunch, the staple of w h ich is eggs and bacon. Then, I will also make either waffles, cr e pes, or pancakes. If I make waffles, we usually have fresh or frozen strawberries and homemade whipped cream as ...
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Maple Syrup

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                 How to Make Maple Syrup Sweet and Sticky, Golden and Glorious, Maple Syrup Makes a Great Topping for Many Things      Maple syrup has been made since before the Europeans came to America, though there is no actual history about how it started. The smells of spring are always refreshing, but they’re even better when you have the sweet smell of syrup in the air too.      Now, I’ve wanted to make maple syrup for years, but as with many things, I had to get the idea past my mother, and into reality. So after some years, I was able to convince her last year, with the help of my dad.      After ordering 6 five gallon buckets , 50 ft of tubing , and taps for the tubing, we were ready to tap four of our trees. In order to get the best results, you have to drill on the south side of the maple tree, about three feet off the ground, and under a branch if you can. After w...
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The Chicken Journy Pt. 3- The coop

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                    How to build a Chicken Coop How we Built our Chicken Coop Taking the tree house apart Taking the tree house apart      After writing the research paper, we got to work on the coop. Instead of building a brand new structure, or buying one from Tractor Supply, we used our playhouse/swing set We unscrewed and removed all of the unnecessary wood, so that it was only the frame. We then took ¼ in plywood and mounted it on the outside as the outer wall. Because we live in Central PA and winters get cold, we sandwiched ½ inch insulation between the outer and inner walls. Putting the outer walls on Working on the roof                           Near the roof we put two ventilation cutouts at the top for the summer, which we hinged so it would be covered in the winter. We replaced the leaky cedar roof with asphalt shingles, ...
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Pumpkin Pie

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 How to Make Fresh Pumpkin Pie Starting from Scratch with a Whole Pumpkin      I’ve always been into baking, from simple cookies to Scottish scones, I’ve made it all. Recently, I’ve wanted to make a pumpkin pie, so I did. But this was not the ordinary pumpkin pie made from a can of Libby's pumpkin. I believe everything's better when you can make it fresh, so the adventure started with a freshly picked pumpkin. Being a gardener, my first thought was, “once I roast the pumpkin I can collect and dry the seeds to grow next year!” so instead of throwing away the seeds I saved them for planting.      I was concerned about how the pie would taste because the recipe I used didn’t call for Pumpkin pie spice, all it called for was cinnamon , ginger and ground cloves. Whats more is I couldn’t find the ground cloves in our vast array of spices. So I had to just use cinnamon and ginger. In the end though, the pie still tasted like pumpkin pie, to be hones...
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The Chicken Journy Pt. 2- The Research

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                         Researching Chickens How to Raise Chickens        This Blog post is going to be just my research on chickens from three years ago.      You h a ve decide d to raise chickens and maybe have read about raising them, and are thinking about getting them. W ell now you have a source to answer all your questions such as how to avoid death in your flock, purchasing them, caring for them, coop requirements, and some breeds of chickens.      W ay s to avoid your chickens’ downfall is the most important knowledge to keep chickens . C over ing the broad subject of keeping predators from the air and ground away from the chickens co u ld go on for a long time, but the basics are simple: CCC ( combat, confront, counter ) . Combat – call your game commission and ask what they can do. Confront – when you see the predator near ...
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The Chicken Journy Pt. 1- The Journy Begins

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            Raising Chickens - the Beginning of Our                                                 Journey The Story:      Starting around 2017 my sister and I helped with the daily chores at the Yetsko farm two blocks from our house. The farm was established in 1855, and has been designated a century farm by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. We still help out with baling hay and any other tasks they need help with. The Yetskos are also the ones who started our chicken journey.      One day in early 2021, we were feeding their flock of twenty some chickens, and honestly, I don’t know why or how we got talking about how easy it is to raise chickens. At some point they told us we could get chickens and it would be easy to raise them.      ...
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Bluberry Muffins

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                How to Make Blueberry Muffins  Making Blueberry Muffins from Scratch      Bake sweets and carry a big whisk , that's what I did yesterday because I was bored. When most people have nothing to do they turn to the TV, and eat snacks. Instead of turning on the TV and eating snacks, I turned off the TV and made the snacks.      Light and fluffy, with a crumbly topping, blueberry muffins are perfect for an early breakfast, a midday snack, or even something to munch on during a long road trip. Blueberry muffins require the perfect timing, and if you do it right, they take no longer than 25 to 30 minutes to make, plus twenty minutes in the oven. Along with simple ingredients, it is one of the best snacks I know of.      First things first, put liners in the muffin tray and heat your oven to temperature. Then you have to create the topping in a bowl, so that the m...
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Tomato tips and tricks

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                          How to Grow Tomato's Tomato Growing Tips      What’s red, round, and perfect when sliced with a sprinkle of salt on it? None other than the Tomato, almost everyone loves tomatoes, whether they're fresh, or in ketchup form. One thing everyone with a garden agrees on is that tomatoes bought at the store, well, they just don't taste like a tomato. If you are new to growing tomatoes, or even if your an experienced gardener, continue reading, because there is lots to learn about the history of the tomato, their health benefits, and some tips and tricks to growing them.                                                   Where did the tomato originate from? Believe it or not, the tomato is native to the Ande mountain r...
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Introduction

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                                        About Me      Welcome to The Redneck Runner, I’m Simon Girard, I live in the once great coal mining town of Portage, Pennsylvania. Home schooled and having just turned 14, I am a young ninth grader with a passion for learning. And by learning, I mean researching anything and everything, from farming and homesteading, to how to build my own business and model rockets, to how to get a ham radio license and a private pilots license. Besides learning, I also run cross country and track and field, and volunteer at our local food pantry.      I have built this blog for a couple of reasons. One, so I can learn good life skills through this journey. Two, because I can, by that I mean that, I have a right as an American that people in other countries don't have. The first amendment states that “Cong...
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